News Of The World January 9th 2000

MAGNET treatment has a high-class history. Cleopatra stuck them on her head to help preserve her beauty, Elizabeth 1 had them for arthritis and US President Bill Clinton uses them for backache.

The therapy works on the theory that illness, usually diagnosed as a chemical problem and treated with drugs, can also be down to an imbalance of electrical energy in the body. By passing low-frequency, pulsating magnetic waves through different parts of the body, tiny electric currents occur.

It is thought these currents are similar to the body's own repair signals, which increase blood flow and oxygen.

Ordinary magnets which are placed on the skin are thought to relieve symptoms of aches and pains.

Teresa Hale, owner of The Hale Clinic in Central London which offers magnetic therapy, said: "We have had people with arthritis whose hands have uncurled in three weeks of treatment. We have also found it has helped people with osteoporosis.